TOKYO (TR) – Investigative sources with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police revealed on Monday a pair of arrests of the president of a talent agency that formerly represented model Maki Nishiyama over the alleged use and possession of stimulant drugs, reports Nikkan Sports (Jan. 23).
In November, police working off a tip searched the Suginami Ward residence of Keitaro Ikeda, the 52-year-old head of Office M and B, and found him collapsed on the balcony.
After he was rushed to a hospital, an analysis of his urine gave a positive result for kakuseizai, or stimulant drugs, according to the Minamiosawa Police Station.
Ikeda then went missing from the hospital. On December 15, police in Komoro City, Nagano Prefecture stopped the vehicle he was driving.
Police subsequently arrested the president on suspicion of possessing stimulant drugs after a search of his residence in Nagano resulted in the discovery the contraband and drug-related utensils.
“I did it due to work stress,” Ikeda was quoted by police. “I got the stimulant drugs from a foreigner in [Tokyo’s] Shinjuku Ward.”
Police originally searched the Ikeda’s Tokyo residence after questioning a woman who said that that she had used stimulant drugs with the suspect. On January 5, police arrested the suspect for a second time on suspicion of using stimulant drugs.
Popular model Maki Nishiyama resigned from Office M and B, which is based in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward, in September of last year. Several months before, a tabloid reported that the agency did not pay her some of the wages she was owed.